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Creditsmart® Now Features Homeownership Preservation Materials

Successful Long-Term Homeownership Begins with Consumer Education

Orlando, FL – Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) has enhanced its CreditSmart® multilingual financial literacy curriculum by adding new material that focuses on homeownership preservation, including foreclosure prevention, planning for emergencies, property maintenance and avoiding financial traps. CreditSmart workshop participants can now have a greater understanding of the responsibilities of caring for their homes, the importance of maintaining their credit, and what to do if they ever have difficulty meeting their financial obligations. Freddie Mac made the announcement today at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual conference.

"For many families, a home is their largest single financial investment and their greatest source of wealth," said Dwight Robinson, senior vice president of Corporate Relation and Housing Outreach for Freddie Mac."One way to better prepare our nation's homeowners for the responsibilities of homeownership is through consumer education. CreditSmart is designed to help consumers build and maintain better credit and understand the steps to successful long-term homeownership."

Guarione M. Diaz, president, Cuban American National Council, Inc., said,"Homeownership is an inseparable part of the American Dream. As a long-term collaborator with Freddie Mac, we have seen the impact of its CreditSmart Español financial education curriculum on Hispanics in the many communities we serve. The lives of families change markedly when they acquire the knowledge and tools of financial literacy, credit management, budgeting and financial decision-making. We are seeing its increasing effectiveness in preparing Hispanics to become homeowners. I want to commend Freddie Mac on its CreditSmart curriculum and for helping to bridge the gap in the Hispanic and African American communities as it relates to consumer education and homeownership."

Recognizing that consumers seek information and assistance from lenders, community-based organizations and other housing professionals, Freddie Mac developed CreditSmart as a tool to support the efforts of organizations that share its goal of creating better-equipped homeowners. CreditSmart, CreditSmart® Español, and CreditSmart® Asian (available in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese) were developed with participation from multicultural groups. Since its inception in 2001, more than a million consumers nationwide have been exposed to the CreditSmart curriculum.

The following home preservation tips are provided courtesy of CreditSmart:

Home Improvement Loan Scam

Home improvement scams come in various forms, including the two most common:

• The contractor asks for money up front and leaves after completing little or no repair work
• The contractor helps you get a loan to refinance repair costs that grow way beyond the original estimate and agreement. The repair costs, plus exorbitant hidden fees and high interest rates become so expensive they're ultimately unaffordable.

Foreclosure prevention

Job loss and illness or death in the family are the two top reasons homeowners find themselves unable to pay their mortgages. Anyone can be at serious risk of financial hardship if they don't plan ahead. Life is full of surprises, and because you can't always predict what life will bring, it's critical that you prepare a safety net to protect yourself. The third most common reason for default is excessive obligation – which could include overspending. The warning signs of excessive obligation include:

• Having no savings
• Rising credit card balances every month
• Making only the minimum payments on your credit cards
• Juggling bills and don't know which one is most important to pay
• Not knowing how much you owe
• Receiving phone calls or letters about delinquent payments
• Dipping into your retirement account
• Hoping to catch up on all your debts when you win the lottery
• Taking extra jobs to make ends meet

If your financial situation changes and you think you might fall behind on your mortgage payments, then:

1. Call your lender and ask to speak to someone in default management.
2. Contact a housing nonprofit for advice. The HOPE National helpline, 888-995-HOPE, is dedicated to helping homeowners facing foreclosure 24 hours every day. Spanish speaking counselors are available.

For more information about CreditSmart, CreditSmart Español, or CreditSmart Asian, and to find out how to bring CreditSmart to your community, please visit www.FreddieMac.com/creditsmart.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible more than 50 million times, ensuring financing for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters.

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